


Four Times Hiccup and Toothless Couldn't Find Adventure and One Time Adventure Found Them

by kateydid



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kateydid/pseuds/kateydid





	Four Times Hiccup and Toothless Couldn't Find Adventure and One Time Adventure Found Them

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aimeebeff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimeebeff/gifts).



i.

Hiccup hopped down from his seat on Toothless’s back and stretched his legs. It was still a little hard to fly for long without his thigh cramping up, but he was getting there. Soon enough he and Toothless would be able to go on their long hauls again, into the endless blue, exploring new islands and meeting new creatures…

“Well, there, son!”

“Oh, hey, Dad,” said Hiccup.

Stoick gave him a welcome punch in the arm. “That was some mighty fine flying you boys were doing out there. How are you feeling?”

“Pretty good,” said Hiccup. “We’ll be back at full strength pretty soon, and I’ll able to help everyone out much more now, I think. Oh, and hey, I’ve got this great new idea…”

“That’s what I thought, m’boy! And have I got the perfect task for you. What do you think about _that_?”

“Um…do the sheep need a new pen? Oh! Maybe a new gate that will reward each sheep with a treat as they come in! No problem, I can rig one up pretty quickly.”

“Nah, m’boy! What we need someone strong and wily to keep an eye on them!”

“…You’re kidding right? You want me to be a _shepherd_?”

“You’re a man, now, you’ve proved that. You’re ready to handle the really adult stuff! Sheep don’t watch themselves, ya know.”

“But, Dad-”

“Look, in all seriousness son, those sheep are a vital part of our life here. I wouldn’t trust them to just anyone. And while we don’t have to watch out for dragons anymore, there are other things to be wary of—a sick sheep is no laughing matter and a night wolf raid can wipe out an entire season’s worth of mutton and wool. And I want you to take it a little easy, even if you did look good today. Just…think of it as an adventure.”

Hiccup sighed. “All right, Dad.”

Except, it wasn’t, of course. The sheep did whatever it was that sheep did, and ignored Hiccup and Toothless completely. The only danger they were in was when Toothless eyed one of the sheep, and looked back at Hiccup, and perked up one of his ears.

“NO,” said Hiccup.

Toothless laid his head back down and blew out a breath.

 

ii.

When Hiccup finally felt like himself again, and was as comfortable on Gobber’s metal leg as he ever going to be, he was shifted to hunting duty, along with Astrid, Snoutlout, and Fishlegs.

The first time would have been an adventure, except they couldn’t agree on where to go, what to look for, and how to catch whatever they momentarily decided to look for.

Hiccup was finally able to convince everyone to set the traps he’d made, except they didn’t work quite as planned, snaring a spruce stump, two pines cones, and a very fine-looking fir.

Only Astrid managed to land a few rabbits, and was horribly smug about it. Snoutlout was peevish and said some things he probably shouldn’t have. They all stared in fascination as Astrid’s handprints on his face went through several different shades of color.

“Hmm, minus one charisma,” said Fishlegs, then reconsidered. “Minus three versus girls.”

It got a lot better after that, although it was never quite as exciting as Hiccup hoped.

 

iii.

Toothless poked his head into the smithy where Hiccup was deep in conversation with Gobber, who was gesticulating wildly.

“How’m I supposed to work when nobody will get me what I need to do my work?”

“Hey, Toothless,” Hiccup said, grateful for the reprieve and giving Toothless’s nose a rub.

He turned to see Gobber eyeing them with a speculative expression.

“Well now,” Gobber said, “It seems to me that two enterprising young lads such as yourselves could take up this task, couldn’t you? You could go to the iron ore deposits and come back with all I need in a jiffy. You could even have a little adventure, Gobber-like, couldn’t you?” Gobber said, attempting for slyness.

“Not everyone wants to be chased by a hammerhead yak, Gobber” said Hiccup with grin.

Gobber humphed.

“What do you say, Toothless? Want to get some iron ore?”

Toothless looked highly doubtful.

“It could be fun!” said Hiccup. “Just like old times, huh?”

Toothless took his time thinking it over, and then finally sighed his assent.

“All right!” shouted Gobber, who smacked the table with his eggbeater.

Unfortunately, one of the spokes got caught up in a wire supporting Hiccup’s new model of his crossbow, which fired, bringing down shelf of maces, one of which hit the large barrel of water Gobber kept for cooling weapons, tipping it all over Toothless.

Toothless sputtered and coughed, and gave a very large sneeze, which unfortunately lit the smithy on fire. Again.

Later, as they moved Gobber’s tools and whatever bits and pieces that could be salvaged, grunting under the weight, Tuffnut said, “Dude, not cool.”

Ruffnut chimed in, “So not an adventure.”

“Yeah, dude, so not an adventure.”

Puffnut the Zippleback stuck his tongue out at Toothless. Both of them.

Toothless shrugged and dug a shallow bed out of the embers.

But he must have felt a _little guilty_ , because the next day, he took Hiccup to the ore deposits and even carried back two loads without a single ear wiggle.

 

iv.

“C’mon, it’ll be an adventure!” said Hiccup.

Toothless snorted and turned his back.

 

v.

“Toothless! Buddy! Let’s go fishing, huh?” Hiccup said.

Toothless ignored him.

“Oh come on. Please? We’re on food duty, and it’ll go so much faster with you—look, I‘ve got this net all rigged up, all you have to do is pull this string here, see, and the fish will practically catch themselves! We’ll be in and out before you know it.”

Toothless flopped onto his side and polished one claw unconcernedly.

“I’ll let you have first pick.”

Toothless perked up an ear. Hiccup gave him an extra rub between the eyes and the deal was made.

Hiccup’s modifications on a standard fishing net worked pretty well. Toothless could pull the line by himself, drawing the net in like a small bag, catching enough cod to last a week.

Hiccup attached the top of the net Toothless’s harness with ropes, but as they got ready to lift it back home, something plowed into Toothless, knocking Hiccup loose.

Toothless dived to catch Hiccup, the net falling back into the ocean, where a dark shape swooped in to lift it out.

It howled at Toothless before flying away with its catch.

“What…was that?” Hiccup said, almost to himself. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen: it wasn’t a Zippleback, despite having two heads. It flew, but looked like cat of some sort, except for the second head, which looked like a goat.

“C’mon Toothless, we’d better head back and figure out what we’re dealing with here.”

***

“Chimera,” said Fishlegs, nodding sagely. “Real nuisances, and they don’t play nicely, either. I heard they can wipe a village clean of all things edible within two hours. And that’s a lot of things. It’s the goat-head really; it’ll eat anything. We’d better take care of them before they become an infestation.

“We?” said Hiccup, startled.

“Of course, we,” said Astrid. “You didn’t think you were going off without us, did you? We’re Vikings, and we stick together.”

Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut nodded in unison, their dragons trying desperately to crowd in behind them.

Hiccup grinned. “Well, what do you know Toothless, it looks like we’ve got ourselves an adventure. What are we waiting for?”


End file.
